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FBI Data Privacy Overview:
- Who: The FBI searched through the electronic data of about 3.4 million U.S. residents.
- Why: The searches reportedly were made as a response to hacking threats.
- Where: The FBI queries were made into U.S. emails, texts and other electronic data data.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation dug into the emails, texts and other electronic data of about 3.4 million U.S. residents without a warrant from December 2020 to November 2021, Bloomberg reports.
The FBI searched Americans’ emails while looking for search for “signs of threats and terrorists,” according to Bloomberg. The search was conducted legally under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), according to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
FBI Ramped Up Queries Over Data Privacy Concerns, Per DNI Report
The DNI report states that the FBI’s “large batch queries” looked for signs of data privacy breaches by “foreign cyber actors” that could “compromise U.S. critical infrastructure.”
“These queries, which included approximately 1.9 million query terms related to potential victims – including U.S. persons – accounted for the vast majority of the increase in U.S. person queries conducted by FBI over the prior year,” according to the report.
The report compared the recent “large batch” number to the previous year: Fewer than 1.3 million queries into residents’ electronic data were conducted between December 2019 and November 2020.
However, the DNI says it is unable to provide the exact number of Americans affected because they don’t have a precise way to measure the data.
The DNI report also indicated that government officials have increasingly requested “unmasking,” where the identity of an American, who has been included in surveillance, is revealed. Officials made 10,700 unmasking requests in 2021 compared to fewer than 7,000 requests in 2020. About 9,800 of those 2021 requests were approved, and about 6,000 2020 requests were approved.
Unmasking is requested when the official feels it is “necessary” to understand the surveillance information, Bloomberg reports. The American’s identity is not released to the public or the media under unmasking.
American Civil Liberties Union Denounced FBI’s ‘Unconstitutional Backdoor Searches’ In Statement
The DNI report did not deem the FBI’s actions as illegal.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union denounced the agency’s “unconstitutional ‘backdoor searches’” in a statement from Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. Gorski called on Congress to “step in to protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.”
FISA is set to expire at the end of 2023 unless Congress renews it.
Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said the “astronomical number of FBI searches of Americans’ communications is either highly alarming or entirely meaningless” to the American public. Wyden called for “baseline transparency” and accurate information from the FBI and other agencies if they want to maintain their “sweeping surveillance powers,” Bloomberg reports.
What do you think of the FBI’s warrantless searches into Americans’ electronic data? Sound off in the comments section below!
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404 thoughts onFBI Searched Through Millions of Americans’ Electronic Data Without Warrants
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How does FISA allow the FBI to search millions of Americans’ account data? If they get a warrant to investigate a terrorist group’s illegal activity, what does that have to do with a the average American citizen? Even if terrorists aero behind data breaches and theft of personal and medical info, why are they searching individuals’ actual info? They need to stay focused on whom they are investigating, and not on who may or may not be a victim of a cybercrime. Unless they have specific authorization in which to do that specific investigative activity!! And now that they have violated the average American citizen’s various constitutional rights, every American citizen should be allowed to file a FOIA request to find out exactly what data breaches the FBI was investigating and if their personal protected data was involved in those cases.
How are they able to do that? Where’s our protection?
Not right so disrespectful. Plus I know it happened because my son got a letter saying that he was owed money from a court hearing where they indicted a Dr and he went to prison. But my son has not heard anything about it . They are above the law they get by with a lot of stuff they should be jailed over we have rights. We need protection from being abused. By the government
That’s not right that’s not fair that’s against our rights as American that they dig into our lives for no good reason and have no warrants that’s real disrespectful they need to be brought to Justice just like everyone else are doing something wrong they posed to be the law but they do not follow by the law in the rules of America I feel like that was real disrespectful
It’s not ok that we as a people have allowed our privacies to be stripped away by gov based on lies and inside jobs. As a result of this kind of entitlements through out our LE millions of Americans are being tortured 24/7 with no touch torture ( so they claim) and these same entitlements are being used as the basis for such torture. The only Domestic Terrorist in this country are those in charge of it!
It’s not ok that we as a people have allowed our privacies to be stripped away by gov based on lies and inside jobs. As a result of this kind of entitlements through out our LE millions of Americans are being tortured 24/7 with no touch torture ( so they claim) and these same entitlements are being used as the basis for such torture. The only Domestic Terrorist in this country are those in charge of it!